June Art Class: Door Knobs

At our tables we were greeted with a special treat: a popcorn-filled jar that served as a wedding table favor from a group member's daughter's wedding.

First of all, we presented our artist trading cards (ATC cards). The ATC cards were to be representative of the wreaths we drew in our previous class. I used stamps and Sharpie markers to make my ATCs. 

Here are some lovely cards I received from members of the group.

I only snapped a few photos of the circle journals this time. Guess I was too busy with other things. These pages were made with paper napkins.

These are pages in the theme of Zentangle, as explained in my previous post here.

Then our monthly activity was to work with vintage door knobs. Door knob art is a very popular project right now. Here are some examples our instructor, Cindy, brought with her to inspire us.

Here is a nice assortment of old door knobs for us to use in our creations.

We brought embellishments; here are some pieces I brought which included old photos.

I transformed my doorknob into a picture holder. Cindy helped me color and twist the wire.

I had no idea that we could color wire.

We used alcohol ink and a blotter. Hmm...I learn something new every time.

 At the end of class, we compiled our door knobs creations for a group shot.

Another fun class! Thanks for reading!

May Art Class

There are always 3 parts to our monthly art class: swapping artist trading cards, sharing the pages we made for a circle journal and making a project.

Here are artist trading cards I received from my friends. Since we made envelopes with the Envelope Punch Board last month, our trading cards reflected what we learned from that. So our trading cards this month were little envelopes with notes inside.

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Now for circle journal photos. This is the spread I made that had the theme "Who would you invite to your fantasy dinner?" Tom Jones & Boz Scaggs, of course! LOL

It was so much fun to see all of the creative pages made by the others as we went around the table and did our monthly show-and-tell. All of the journals have themes. This journal has the theme "Zentangle", which is creating structured designs through drawing various patterns. 

This is my journal, which has the theme "what inspires you?" The artist that created the page for me loves making envelopes with the Envelope Punch Board. I must say I made extra little envelopes like this too - I think they will come in handy for gift giving!

I can't remember this theme...

or this one but they are wonderful treasures too.

The theme here is "my favorite things."

This one is "a pocket full of pretty".

This one is also "what inspires you?" This artist is a marvelous painter.

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We made two projects this time. The first was this wreath that was supposed to be filled with roses. Mine turned out to be more like zinnias. LOL

Here are two examples showing us how the roses were supposed to look. Hmmm...I tried, but I just couldn't get them right. Our leader, Cindy, made us feel so special with how our wreaths turned out though. I want to make roses like hers.

Cindy's beautiful work

This one has layered roses added for dimension.

Cindy's beautiful work

It was amazing to see how each lovely work of art turned out by the 8 ladies in our group!

We used these markers that are only for watercolor paper. We blended the colors with the water pen below. We used a black artist pen to draw the flowers freehanded.

The other project we made was this really cool book! We used the Envelope Punch Board! I love the front and back cover textured paper.

We punched, scored and folded papers

and attached them together.

We finished the pages off with pretty papers. In-between the pretty papers and book pages is an opening in which to slide special treasures.

We punched a hole and added the elastic band.

These were such fun projects to make!

Another great class via Cindy! As always, I look forward to next month's class!

April Art Class

In April, we created some interesting pieces with the Envelope Punch Board.

Make It/Take It: Thanks Mom!

Last evening I attended a craft event at the local library. It was to make this spinning photo cube for Mother's Day. We were told to bring 4 photos that were 3 3/8 inches square. Of course I waited until the last minute to find my photos. So I got out a box of random photos and found 4 oldies but goodies. They seemed to coordinate well together so I decided to give them a try. Also, they were already 3 3/8 inches square. That's the size that photos used to be when I was a kid. 

Here I am in the 70s with my little sister 8 years younger than me. Isn't she adorable?

What is Gamsol?

I'm a bit behind on posting what we've been doing in my monthly art class. We created this framed layered flower in our March art class. 

Plants for the Planet

Once again my local library presented an interesting class, this one in honor of Earth Day. It was called "Plants for the Planet." The library provided all of the materials to make this recycled vase with a Sweet William plant inside.

Leathercraft Bracelet Class

My local library offers many kinds of classes each month. I attended an Excel class in January and some craft classes too. The craft classes are free and include all of the materials needed. Isn't that amazing? The classes are normally very simple but I always learn something new. This month I attended the "Make Your Own Leathercraft Bracelets" class. I had never worked with leather before and probably never would if it hadn't been for the generosity of my library.

February Art Class - Tissue Paper Transfer

I'm really late in publishing this post, but later is better than never, right?! I think I procrastinated in creating this blog post because it is very detailed and it took me awhile to organize my thoughts. If you can hang in there with me, I think you will learn some neat things...I sure did!

In our February art class, we created a little book with a sliding cover, and decorated an egg and peat pot with printed tissue paper. The technique we used was called tissue paper transfer.

Completed Circle Journal

Last year I shared with you the circle journal I was working on each month with my friends in my Not Your Ordinary Art Class. Each month we created a page in each other's journal based on the theme each member chose for her journal.

My journal, which has the theme "Green," is now complete.  I wanted to share it with you to possibly offer some ideas in case you would like to do this with your own group. 

The printed and cut cover images of Irish kids came from The Graphics Fairy blog. I've made gift tags, die cuts and greeting cards with these cuties before.

Once Upon A Christmas

I had the pleasure of joining a fabulous art retreat called Once Upon A Christmas.  It was held at the historic Marion Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina.